An Old Norse root for the English word shame – kinnroði – denotes “cheek-redness.” Our body as well as our mind protests when we break a rule we have for ourselves, when we do or are something we’ve been telling ourselves we shouldn’t do or be. We may want to continue holding onto rules likeContinue Reading: 2021 World Shame Attacking Championships
Therapeutic Alliance: “Healing through love”
The relationship between a therapist and patient lays the foundation for the work these two can do together. Join my colleague Heather Clague MD and I for a consideration of two key elements of therapeutic alliance: emotional connection and collaboration
Death, Dying And CBT
As a boy I learned a World War I song of the trenches that began “Never laugh when a hearse goes by, for you may be the next die.” The song goes on exhaustively to catalogue the process of human decomposition. My favorite verse was and is “The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out.TheContinue Reading: Death, Dying And CBT
Adam & Eve & CBT
The Book of Genesis tells us the story of Adam and Eve and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Far from being simply a tale of mythic ancestors, it is in fact a precise, scientifically accurate accounting of a choice you and I make many times daily. In this post I lookContinue Reading: Adam & Eve & CBT
Tyranny Of The Shoulds
We oftentimes tell ourselves and other people what we should or shouldn’t think, feel or do. This post looks at some ways these statements work for us, at the price we pay for making them, and at two alternatives to shoulding on ourselves and others